afford him relief, or even contribute to his comfort, and his remains were committed to the waves of the Gulf of Mexico. 3. To deepen still more the sombre shades of the melancholy picture, all this happened at a conjuncture when offers were held out to him, and prospects unfolded, in the highest degree flattering; and by which he might have become easy and affluent in fortune. 4. And the value of such prospects can be duly appreciated by his acquaintance and friends; for it is well known to them, that, like too many others of the bright but improvident sons of genius, he had made no competent pecuniary provisions, any of the adverse contingencies of life. for 5. The rolling surf, as it breaks over the reef near which he was deposited, resounds to him a deep and solemn requiem, which will never cease to salute the ear of the passing mariner, while the winds shall continue to waft him, and the ocean be his home. 6. And amidst the roar of the mighty waters, his repose will be as peaceful, as if he slept under fretted marble, or the grassy sod, silently wept on by the dews of evening, and soothed by the vespers of the softened breeze. Let us fancy to ourselves a choir of the fairest and most exquisite vocalists of the ocean, chanting to their favorite the following elegy : 7. Farewell! be it ours to embellish thy pillow 8. Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber . We'll dive where the gardens of coral lie darkling, We'll seek where the sands are most precious and sparkling, J. Farewell! farewell! until pity's emotion Is extinct in the hearts of the fair and the brave; The Rev. Horace Holley, LL. D., was President of the Transylvania University, at Lexington, in the state of Kentucky, for nine years, during which period, the institution greatly flourished. In the year 1827, Dr. Holley, in consequence of persecution, and a vituperative attack from the governor of that state, resigned the presidency of the University. He now formed the idea of taking an excursion to Europe, for the benefit of such young men as were disposed, and could afford, to accompany him. This plan, he knew, would, if carried into effect, give his pupils an opportunity to acquire much more practical knowledge, than they could obtain at home, or from books. The excursion, too, would tend to enlarge their views and liberalize their minds. The system, for its completion, was to include from six to eight years. But the friends of education at New-Orleans, persuaded Dr. Holley to abandon his proposed European excursion, and to agree to take charge of a literary institution which they were desirous to establish in their city. Owing to the oppressive heat of the climate at New-Orleans in July, he measurably lost his health. Under the impres sion that the sea air would restore it, he took a ship to go to New-York. While on his way to that city, a storm occurred, which occasioned seasickness with the passengers generally; and, with Dr. Holley, a disease of which he died. His winding sheet was his cloak, and his grave the ocean. He was a brother of Myron and O. L. Holley. Charles Caldwell, M. D., Professor of Medicine in the Transylvania University, prepared and delivered, at the chapel, a most excellent discourse on the genius and character of Dr. Holley, from the concluding part of which, the above extract is taken. It should be read or recited deliberately, and with considerable quantity. The key for the prose, should not be very high nor low. The poetry with which it is concluded, requires rather a low key. It is a piece of deep pathos; and, if its elocution be such as it demands, it cannot fail to excite a thrilling interest in the mind of the hearer. 21. SATAN'S SUPPOSED SPEECH TO HIS LEGIONS, ON THE OBLIVI OUS POOL.-Milton. 1. Princes; potentates; Warriors; the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost! Eternal spirits; or have ye chosen this place, Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To slumber here as in the vales of Heaven? 2. Or in this abject posture, have ye sworn His swift pursuers from Heaven's gates, discern John Milton was born at London, in the year 1608. His "Paradise Lost" is written with great ability. It displays almost infinite power of imagination. When Milton wrote it, he doubtless, "felt the enchantment of oriental fiction." The idea of writing it, was probably suggested to the mind of its author, by his reading Homer, whose account of the Trojan war somewhat resembles the description contained in Milton's work, of a war in heaven. Be that as it may, Milton justly ranks very high as a poet. The above speech which he imagines to have been made, requires a high key, and quick time. 22. APOSTROPHE TO LIGHT.-Milton. 1. Hail, holy light; offspring of Heaven first-born, May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, 2. Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream, 3. Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detain'd 4. Taught by the heavenly muse to venture down 5. 6. Though hard and rare; thee I revisit safe, Yet not the more, Thus with the year Of nature's works, to me expunged and razed; So much the rather thou, celestial Light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight. The above poetic address, in which Milton laments the loss of his sight, is one of his happiest efforts. As he was blind at the time he wrote it, wisdom was "at one entrance quite shut out." The deprivation of sight, seems to have given him additional vigor of intellect: “He lisped in numbers, for the numbers came." It has been well said of him, that when "he closed his eyes on earth, he opened them on heaven." The above apostrophe to light, requires a low key, rather slow time, and long quantity. 23. SPEECH OF LORD CHANCELLOR THURLOW, IN REPLY TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. 1. MY LORDS:-I am amazed at the attack the noble duke has made upon me. Yes, my lords, I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer who owes his seat in this house, to his successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. 2. Does he not feel that it is as honorable to owe it to these, as to being the accident of an accident! To all these noble lords, the language of the noble duke is as applicable, and as insulting, as it is to myself. But I do not fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the peerage more than I do; but my lords, I must say that the peerage solicited me,not I the peerage. 3. Nay more; I can and will say, that as a peer of parliament, as speaker of this right honorable house, as keeper of the great seal, as guardian of his majesty's conscience, as lord high chancellor of England, nay, even in that character alone in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered,—as a MAN, I am at this moment as respectable, I beg leave to add, as much respected, as the proudest peer I now look down upon. The duke had, in the "House of Lords," reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission to the peerage. Lord Thurlow rose from the woolsack; and, fixing on the duke almost the look of Jove when he grasps the thunder, he spoke as above; and the effect of his speech was so great, that it gave him an ascendancy, both within the walls of the house, and out of them, which no other chancellor ever possessed. It should be given with great and increasing energy. |